Microsoft Wants to Use TV Frequencies for the Internet

Microsoft has a plan to bring internet to the furthest reaches of the U.S. not with cables but through the air. The plan hinges on so-called "white space" television bandwidth, which could help bring high-speed broadband internet to millions underserved Americans.

"White spaces" are intentional gaps between television channels on the wireless spectrum below 700 MHz put in place for buffering purposes, so important bands with actual traffic have some breathing room between each other. But if put to use for internet purposes, these bands have superior reach over regular Wi-Fi with the ability to get a connection over 6 miles away (10 kilometers), and can easily move through buildings or vegetation, two factors that make it intriguing for rural use.

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Microsoft has promoted the technology for years, launching trials in England, Kenya, Colombia and the Philippines. Microsoft also hopes to invest in 12 projects in 12 states over the next year, with the goal of bringing broadband connectivity to two million people in rural America by July 4, 2022.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft President Brad Smith declined to state how much the company was spending on the project, calling it a "civic investment." But he did note that the company expects to see dividends down on the road, saying that white space technology will be "good for everybody in technology, including Microsoft." The company has estimated that it would cost between somewhere between $10 and $15 billion to connect all of rural America with broadband access using TV white spaces.

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Not everyone shares the company's optimism. Patrick McFadden, a lawyer for the National Association of Broadcasters, has called Microsoft's plan "nonsense on its face. The proposal is either unnecessary, because there will be plenty of spectrum, or it is harmful, because there will not be enough."

Trade groups are worried that Microsoft will interfere with television broadcasts and clog up parts of the wireless spectrum they could be using. McFadden also notes that Microsoft "already made this play a decade ago. The company asked for spectrum and the [FCC] granted it, free of charge, in 2010. Since then – despite elaborate promises of investment and innovation – Microsoft and others have done next to nothing to invest in or make worthwhile use of that spectrum."

But Microsoft is attempting to frame white spaces as a legacy project, comparing the effort to achieving coast-to-coast telephone communication in 1916. It notes in a white paper that like "phones (which took 13 years to go from initial approval to the first available commercial products), Wi-Fi devices (which took 14 years) and 4G LTE devices (which took nine years), TV white spaces technologies presented numerous technological and other hurdles that had to be overcome to make them a feasible solution for closing the digital divide."

Microsoft is advertising its efforts in Virginia, seen in the video above, as a model that will work for the rest of rural America. The company gave $250,000 to Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp., in conjunction with equal or larger donations from local groups. The efforts gave limited white space internet to 1,000 homes.